Construction work has begun on the Nahavnd Solar Power Plant in Hamedan Province, the head of Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company said.
“The 10-megawatt photovoltaic facility is being built on a 15-hectare piece of land by the private sector,” Arash Kordi was also quoted as saying by Barq News website.
Estimated to cost $15 million, this will be the largest solar farm in the region and can supply at least 10,000 households with stable power, he added.
The photovoltaic power project is expected to become operational in August 2023.
Kordi also broke ground on a 63/20 kilovolt substation in Nahavand County.
“The substation's capacity is 120 MW and will be completed at an estimated cost of $20 million in two years,” he said.
The project is expected to help stabilize power supply in the western region for at least 50 years.
According to Shirzad Jamshidi, managing director of the provincial Electricity Distribution Company, 10 private companies in Hamedan Province have received permits from the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization to build solar power plants in the western province.
“The plants will have a total capacity of 60 MW and three are expected to be launched by the end of the current fiscal year in March 2022,” he said.
Six solar farms in Hamedan are generating an aggregate of about 70 MW hours of electricity per annum and helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Renewables have a small share in Iran's power industry that is mainly based on fossil fuels. Less than 1,000 MW of the total 90,000 installed capacity come from renewables.
To boost green energy, more companies are investing in the field across Iran, especially in Hamedan, 330 km west of Tehran, which has about 290 sunny days in a year.
Distributed Generation System
In addition to solar plants, small-scale power plants with distributed generation system are among energy sources that emit less greenhouse gases compared to the traditional thermal power plants, Jamshidi said.
Four small-scale power plants are operating with DG system in the province with a total capacity of 25 MW.
Distributed generation refers to electricity produced in small quantities near the point of use, as alternative or supplement to traditional centralized grid-connected power.
The government is trying to forge partnerships with private companies by offering incentives to expand electricity generation. The Energy Ministry guarantees the purchase of electricity generated by small-scale plants for five years.
Establishing a major power plant with 500 MW capacity requires at least 50 hectares of land and 10-15 kilometers of gas pipelines to supply the plant.
This is while a 25-MW power plant needs less than 0.3 hectares.
Moreover, there are four cogeneration or combined heat and power plants with a total capacity of about 30 MW operating in the province.
CHP is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is an efficient use of fuel.
In conventional power plants, some energy is lost as waste heat, but in cogeneration, most of the thermal energy is used.
CHP is an on-site generation resource and can be designed to support continued operations in the event of disaster or grid disruption by continuing to provide reliable electricity.
It provides crucial power reliability to a variety of users, especially hospitals, emergency medical centers and desalination plants in coastal areas. Cogeneration stations can help the grid supply stable power during peak hours.
